A name often eclipsed by history, Félix Resurrección Hidalgo remains to be one of our country's most important artists
A friend of Jose Rizal's and a major contributor to Philippine artistic tradition, Félix Resurrección Hidalgo is often overshadowed by his contemporaries. Hailing from a lauded family and an ilustrado, Hidalgo's biography is not as renowned as that of Juan Luna or Fernando Amorsolo. Yet, his contributions are significant, especially as an impressionist painter in the 19th century. Born in Binondo in 1853, Hidalgo was the third of seven children. Much like other wealthy Filipinos of the time, Hidalgo travelled to Europe to pursue further studies, earning knowledge in fields such as artistry, law, and philosophy.
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Of course, his talent is best recognised in the field of art, where his paintings now fetch incredible sums, each acknowledged as important cultural heritage pieces. His travels throughout Europe inspired him plenty, and he even gained recognition in contests abroad. Plenty of his work focused on portraits, but his creativity extended to landscape art and nature.
The emotion in his pieces expresses the range of his talent. Take, for example, his 1887 painting, La Barca ("The Boat"). Dark and dangerous, it gives its onlooker an undercurrent of fearfulness, with the boat's passengers, quite literally, on the brink of calamity. Meanwhile, his painting of La vendedora de lanzonez ("The Lanzones Vendor"), finished just a year before La Barca, shows serenity through its play of light and highlights a young girl staring straight into the viewer's eyes. In 1887, Hidalgo joined the Exposicion General de las Islas Filipinas in Madrid, where he presented two paintings, one of which—Laguna Estigia—received a gold medal.
One of his most notable works is Las Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas al Populacho, which translates to "Christian Virgins Exposed to the Population". It gives a disturbing glimpse into the reality of the male gaze and doubtless the rampant sexism of the time.